Archive for the ‘square dancing in a round house’ Category

i think outstanding music (and art in general – and i guess it also applies for science and other areas) can be called mad. mad not in the medical sense – but mad because borders of “how to do it” are not respected, the usual techniques to make sense are not applied. o.h.m. (from the last post) makes for a good example: the beats are too fuzzy, there are way too many sounds on it, and how can you have in one moment something like post-rock guitars and then a salsa snippet? it does not make any sense! the beauty is: yes, it does. it opens the door to new ways of making sense, and in the best case therefore to new ways of perception and thinking. and there lies for me the beauty and fascination of art, especially music, but also of science and other forms of cultural production. and for the musicians i consider most interesting it seems to be a big part of their motivation, too. to cross these given borders of what constitutes “normal” or “good” and go beyond. and yes, there is an utopian aspect to it, too. and yes, i will certainly come back to that – be it in the context of reviewing texts about music, be it by presenting certain musicians that stress this aspect in their music (hello, cristian vogel!).

but what has that to do with hip hop? well, it applies to hip hop, too. but there is more: funny enough i seem to have a preference for mad mad hip hop, too. meaning hip hop with a nearly medical madness: with an intensity, an urgency that borders on the insane. be it the sparse grittiness of clipse, be it the lyrical madness of mc 900 ft jesus, be it the obsession of mood with doom, be it the disturbingly mumbling sensational.

or be it the hysterical quality of rumi rapping fast over sick beats. mc rumi is a japanese mc – and well, part of the hysterical quality certainly comes from the fact that japanese to my ears just sounds so… well… let’s just say different. but the music has a dark and driving quality and combined with the high pitched rapping of rumi it makes for intense listening. i came across her music thanks to square dancing in a round house – and that is where i am sending you to now. so go over there and get some more information on her as well as her first record, hell me tight.

this is a good moment to introduce another very fine blog with very fine music: square dancing in a round house. a music blog which posts a lot i actually have as well in my vaults…somewhere. since the last post was metalheadz’ metalbox, i especially would like to point out goldie‘s (co-founder of metalheadz) timeless (the double disc edition). but you also find the techstep sampler from the emotif label and the highly recommended torque by ed rush, dj trace, fierce, and nico.

then you’ll find classic techno (get yourself that jeff mills mix-cd (yes, the liquid room one) if you do not already have it!), dubby stuff, leftfield stuff, german post-punk and still a lot more… as a big plus there is an introductory text to each post that is not just copied from discogs or wikipedia. in other words: a top notch music blog!

Internals

update: for the moment no re-ups will be made as i do not have any access to my archive.
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